The Wanganui Chronicle. SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1943. GOOD MORROW TO ALL THIS!

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 1, 2 January 1943, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1943. GOOD MORROW TO ALL THIS!

QF course we are going to win the war. Most of the winning has possibly been done. The greater portion of the work may have been accomplished already. Italy knows she is licked and is beginning to say so. That is comforting. Germany is coming round to the same idea. As in 1918 so in 1942 Germany used a newspaper article to break the news gently that the Allies were on top. In 1918 it was Maximillian Harden’s Die Zukunft that was permitted to tell the people that the English soldier had the habit of being on the winning side at the end of the campaign. The Frankfurter Zeitung has been warming itself up to say something of the same sort. Japan isn’t licked, doesn’t think she is, and doesn’t expect to be. There are some who believe that a holding campaign against Japan is not the sort of thing to do the trick. They may be right because, with the exception of machine tools—admittedly essentials of war—she has been improving her supply position by organising the occupied countries. That is how matters stand at the present time.

The most of the fighting to win the war is going to be accomplished in the year 1943. It is most important that New Zealand shall play her part to the full. Everything must bc'done to bring about the defeat of the enemy. There can be no doubt that tho Government of this Dominion is doing its best to win the war. Its best, it is to be observed, is not the best. Here is a difference which is important. There are not many men of outstanding ability in public life to-day in any political party, or in all of them put together. Perhaps there is not a very large number of men of outstanding ability in the Dominion at the present time. Accept this modest estimate of available ability as a correct one for the moment, and it immediately becomes plain that the first thing to do is to secure for the prosecution of the war the largest number of men to co-operate with the Government in its endeavours to do its best. But the obligation rests upon the Government to select the best men wherever they are, in polities or out of politics. At the moment the dominating consideration seems to be that a man shall be a, member of the Labour Party, a party which confessedly hasn’t a high percentage of men of outstanding ability. This policy has the merit of being loyal to those who support the party, and every credit shqpld be given to the Government that shows loyalty to those who have been loyal to it. Mr. Coates tried the other tack and dissolved the Reform Party. Mr. Fraser is too clever to repeat Mr. Coates’ mistake.

But is the present endeavour to put the Dominion’s war effort through the bottleneck of a political party wise in the existing circumstances? The public is angry and restive. It believes thal the manpower problem is being mishandled, and there is good reason for believing that there are in responsible positions those who are shutting their eyes to the problems which they are required to solve. The public believes that the wartime production problem has been mishandled and it sees evidence of this in every shop window in the form of the lack of goods and the high prices tor supplies. This festive season has been a season of famine in some respects for many moderately comfortable people and possibly of discomfort for people on low incomes. On top of these failures the Primary Production Councils are still being urged to exclude the Press from their meetings so that the Government's ailings m this respect shall not be publicly canvassed. What a pity the War Administration broke down by the over-use of the gag! If it had been applied with a gentler hand much more gagging oi public discussion might have been accomplished. The transport problem—an admittedly difficult task—has by no means been solved, and it is possibly one which is incapable of solution depending as it does on the power problem—a problem over which the Government has no control.

The foregoing doesn’t seem like saying a Happy New Tear to everyone, but facing the facts is the best way of ushering in the Glad New r ear. Fictions won’t prevail over facts, because fictions cannot dissolve facts. Seeing that the Government generally goes ixt „ S , tates for its ins Piration, let the established precedent be followed now. The Washington Post published an article from the pen of one who enjoys the name of Robert Moses—significant because Moses was the greatest politician and the greatest unifier that history knows. The American namesake of the Jewish national leader has given 27 years of service as a public servant and is widely credited with being one of the ablest public administrators m America. This is what he says: “If we Americans are to preserve democracy, we must Iqive either a completely national administration with politics, personalities and New Deal objectives shelled tor the duration of the war, or a loyal opposition—loyal that is, to the Republic for which the President stands. The critics must be invited into the Government if they have anything to contribute toward winning the war, or they must be given an honourable and recognised place in opposition. If the English had suppressed the critics of their recent inept Ministries there would be no England to-day. The average voter is not convinced that our present Cabinet represents the ablest people to be found in the country for the work on hand. In war the fans want the best players in the team, not the substitutes. If we must get along with less sugar, tyres, gasoline or razor blades so be it. but let us get tlie word from someone who has studied the problem of rationing. Contempt for amateur rationers is rampant at a time when respect for public authority is indispensible. The greatest defect of the present Administration is its unwillingness to appoint the best men to be found, and to delegate full authority to them. The New Deal has never taken seriously the old slogan of business—organise, deputise, supervise. And the public is also becoming increasingly critical of the President’s reluctance to pin failures on those responsible for them.”

Are these familiar words and arc they applicable to New Zealand? Finally, read this conclusion: “If democracy, if our very civilisation, goes down, it will be politics, personal government and poor administration which are responsible.” This conclusion should be pasted inside every man’s hat so that he may read it every time he covers or uncovers his head during 1943. It should also be pasted in the flap of every woman’s purse beside her vanity mirror.